by Langdon Cook
On the other side of the continent, another group worked tirelessly to see the project into print. I offer my endless gratitude to my agent, Lisa Grubka, and her colleagues at Fletcher & Co., Melissa Chinchillo and Erin McFadden. At Ballantine, editor extraordinaire Susanna Porter offered wise counsel and necessary red ink; I salute the rest of the Penguin Random House team for their diligence: Evan Camfield, Mark Maguire, Barbara Bachman, Kathy Lord, David Stevenson, Katie Rice, Greg Kubie, Emily Hartley, and mapmakers Mapping Specialists, Ltd. My appreciation also goes out to Ryan Doherty for his early interest and Priyanka Krishnan for her feedback on the initial draft.
Finally, I can’t offer enough thanks to my wife, Martha Silano, and our children, Riley and Ruby, for all their love and patience; returning to my family after faraway fishing trips is the best catch of all.
WHEN A TROUT IS A SALMON: A NOTE ON TAXONOMY
A rainbow trout is more closely related to a sockeye salmon than it is to a brown trout. How can this be? Simply put, the terms trout and salmon are misleading. The former was once used to describe fish in the Salmonidae family that were thought to live strictly in fresh water, as opposed to salmon, which mature in salt water. We now know that all members of the family will sometimes seek the salt if accessible, some more than others.
For the purposes of this book, I refer to five species in North America as Pacific salmon, among a number of other species in the same genus, Oncorhynchus. The five are: king or chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha), silver or coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch), red or sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka), chum or dog salmon (Oncorhynchus keta), and pink or humpback salmon (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha). A sixth species of Pacific salmon, the cherry or masu salmon (Oncorhynchus masou), spawns in Asia. Two other species that appear in the text are technically also in the Pacific salmon genus: the rainbow trout and its sea-run form known as steelhead (Oncorhynchus mykiss), and the cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarkii), which also has a sea-run form.
So-called salmon and trout of the Atlantic are grouped into the Salmo genus and offer the same confusing nomenclature: Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) and brown trout (Salmo trutta). Finally, there is a third genus, Salvelinus, which includes the chars, many of which are commonly called trout: Arctic char (Salvelinus alpinus), bull trout (Salvelinus confluentus), Dolly Varden trout (Salvelinus malma), lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush), and brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis), among others.
All of these fish are salmonids—enchanting creatures by any name.
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Arax, Mark, and Rick Wartzman. The King of California. Public Affairs, 2003.
Barber, Katrine. Death of Celilo Falls. University of Washington Press, 2005.
Behnke, Robert J. Trout and Salmon of North America. Free Press, 2002.
Brown, Bruce. Mountain in the Clouds: A Search for the Wild Salmon. University of Washington Press, 1995.
Claxton, Earl, and John Elliott. Reef Net Technology of the Saltwater People. Saanich Indian School Board, 1994.
Cone, Joseph. A Common Fate: Endangered Salmon and the People of the Pacific Northwest. Henry Holt, 1995.
Cone, Joseph, and Sandy Ridlington, editors. The Northwest Salmon Crisis: A Documentary History. Oregon State University Press, 1996.
Deloria Jr., Vine Indians of the Pacific Northwest: From the Coming of the White Man to the Present Day. Fulcrum Publishing, 2012.
Dupris, Joseph C., Kathleen S. Hill, and William H. Rodgers, Jr. The Si’lailo Way: Indians, Salmon and Law on the Columbia River. Carolina Academic Press, 2006.
Fennelly, John F. Steelhead Paradise. Frank Amato Publications, 1989.
Harden, Blaine. A River Lost. W. W. Norton, 1996.
Hawley, Steven. Recovering a Lost River: Removing Dams, Rewilding Salmon, Revitalizing Communities. Beacon Press, 2011.
Hooton, Robert S. Skeena Steelhead: Unknown Past, Uncertain Future. Frank Amato Publications, 2011.
House, Freeman. Totem Salmon: Life Lessons from Another Species. Beacon Press, 2000.
Igler, David. Industrial Cowboys: Miller & Lux and the Transformation of the Far West, 1850–1920. University of California Press, 2005.
Layman, William D. River of Memory: The Everlasting Columbia. Wenatchee Valley Museum & Cultural Center in association with University of Washington Press and University of British Columbia Press, 2006.
Lethcoe, Jim and Nancy. A History of Prince William Sound, Alaska. Prince William Sound Books, 2001.
Lichatowich, James A. Salmon Without Rivers: A History of the Pacific Salmon Crisis. Island Press, 2001.
———. Salmon, People, and Place: A Biologist’s Search for Salmon Recovery. Oregon State University Press, 2013.
Mapes, Lynda V. Elwha: A River Reborn. Mountaineers Books, 2013.
Martin, Irene. Legacy and Testament: The Story of Columbia River Gillnetters. Washington State University Press, 1994.
Montgomery, David R. King of Fish: The Thousand-Year Run of Salmon. Westview Press, 2003.
Taylor III, Joseph E. Making Salmon: An Environmental History of the Northwest Fisheries Crisis. University of Washington Press, 1999.
Ulrich, Roberta. Empty Nets: Indians, Dams, and the Columbia River. Oregon State University Press, 2007.
Upton, Joe. Alaska Blues: A Fisherman’s Journal. Alaska Northwest Publishing Co., 1977.
White, Richard. The Organic Machine: The Remaking of the Columbia River. Hill and Wang, 1995.
Wilkinson, Charles. Messages from Frank’s Landing: A Story of Salmon, Treaties, and the Indian Way. University of Washington Press, 2000.
Williams, Chuck. Bridge of the Gods, Mountains of Fire: A Return to the Columbia Gorge. Friends of the Earth/Elephant Mountain Arts, 1980.
Woodcock, American “Woody.” An Art of Reef Netting. Washington State Library, 1978.
BY LANGDON COOK
The Mushroom Hunters
Fat of the Land
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
LANGDON COOK is the author of The Mushroom Hunters: On the Trail of an Underground America, winner of the 2014 Pacific Northwest Book Award, and Fat of the Land: Adventures of a 21st Century Forager. Cook’s writing appears in numerous publications and has been nominated for a James Beard Award (2016) and a Pushcart Prize. He lives in Seattle with his wife and two children.
langdoncook.com
Facebook.com/langdon.cook
Twitter: @langdoncook
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